The Fight for Privacy, Apple vs. FBI

For those of you that have been living under a rock, the FBI and Apple have been engaged in a legal battle over unlocking the iPhone of the terrorist in the San Bernadino attack. The FBI wants to get into the phone to further investigate the attack, having already previously obtained a warrant. However, they cannot get into the phone since there is a pass code. It’s a newer model phone with built-in encryption and investigators are worried the data would be wiped if they tried to get access to the phone by brute force–10,000 combinations and the phone will probably wipe itself after 10 tries. In order to get access to the phone, The FBI has asked Apple to essentially create an alternate versions of iOS (which may or may not exist) where it would be easier to get around the encryption.

The FBI would love to be able to get into this phone. Who knows what kind of people these shooters were talking to or being influenced by? They cold have been in contact with other like-minded people. If there is a chance of stopping another terrorist attack before it gets off the ground, it’s a chance worth taking. We are talking about protecting innocent lives after all. The use of such a technology will (hopefully) be used in very isolated cases, right?

From Apple’s perspective, they haven’t developed this technology yet, so they say. The government can’t –or at least shouldn’t– dictate to a private company what products they can create. Even if they did create this technology, how do we know the government won’t use it against us? We’ve already been subject to wiretapping, drone surveillance, stripping at the airport, etc. This could be another tool used against us to obtain our information. In addition, our government computers aren’t very secure at all and could be hacked at any point. A hacktivist group like Anonymous or another country such as China could do some dangerous, dangerous things if they were to use this backdoor.

Obviously, there are some dangerous implication depending on which way this case goes and this could end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. In addition, Congress may decide to act on the matter. When it comes to technology, privacy, and security, it never falls on party lines nor should it. While I see how important it is for the FBI to get into this phone, this is a slippery slope I’m not going down. I’m not willing to trade a little liberty for security.

However, I’m curious about what everyone else thinks. Am I the only one who thinks this way or am I crazy? Feel free to comment below or on any of my social media channels.